Shattered By Broken Dreams

Savannah raced out of the bathroom and sped through the living room area of the bus, startling Erica and Kyle who were sitting on the couch eating toast.
“What the hell is the rush Road Runner?” Erica called out, then her eyes widened with concerned when she saw the wildness in Savannah’s eyes. “What the hell’s happened?” she called out as Savannah threw open the door of the bus and stumbled down the steps.

Righting herself quickly from her quick descent down the steps, Savannah glanced up to see that the bus was parked outside the La Crosse Center which was the venue for that night’s concert. She looked wildly around until she spotted Avenged’s bus parked a few spaces over. Taking off at a dead run, she arrived breathless at the door of the bus and began hammering on the door.
“What the fucking hell?!” she heard Johnny yell from inside the bus.
“Hold ya fucking horses, I’m coming!” she heard Matt yell out before the door was opened. His eyes widened momentarily, and then he grunted in surprise when Savannah slammed past him and he bounced off the door jamb. She scrambled up the steps and into the bus.
“Zacky!” she yelled out. Matt rubbed the small of his back from where he’d he bounced off the door and looked at Johnny, dumbfounded.
“What the hell’s going on out there!” Brian yelled as he poked his head out of the bathroom, and quickly pulled back into the bathroom as Savannah charged past him.
“Vannah, what the fuck are you doing?” he yelled as she started to rip back the curtains on the bunks.
“Oi, naked here!” Jimmy yelled as he hastily covered himself and Katie. “You don’t need to be seeing my bits girlie!”
“Where’s Zacky?!” Savannah gasped, winded from her headlong rush to the bus.
“Two bunks down on the top,” Katie replied wide-eyed.

Savannah leapt for the bunk and ripped away the curtain. She grabbed Zacky’s leg and yanked. He was in the process of waking up at the commotion, and came flying out of the bunk and landed on top of her. She let out an “oomph” as he landed on top of her. He blinked sleepily, and his eyes widened as he came fully to consciousness to feel Savannah lying underneath him.
“Vannah?” he questioned. “What are you doing here?”
“Did he tried to kill her?!” Savannah shrieked at him, not even registering for the moment that she was spread-eagled on the ground and Zacky was lying between her thighs.
“What?!” Zacky asked in a high-pitched voice.
“My father!” Savannah yelled, even though Zacky’s face was only inches from her own. “Did he try to kill your mother?!” Zacky’s face went white, and he looked up to see Matt and Johnny crammed in the doorway to the bunk room, Brian poking his head out of the bathroom, and Jimmy leaning over the edge of his bunk. They were all wide-eyed in shock.
“Zacky, answer me!” Savannah snapped, her brown eyes still wide. She didn’t realize that she was still panting with exertion and adrenaline. Zacky was uncomfortably aware of just where he was, and he bit his lip as Savannah shifted underneath him. Now was not the time to draw attention to his raging libido. He bit his snakebites as he looked down at Savannah.
“Yes,” he whispered, almost inaudibly although Savannah heard him. Upon hearing his words, Savannah’s eyes welled with tears and Zacky instinctively cradled her to him.
“Why?” she sobbed. “Why would he try to kill her?”
“It was because of the shopping centre,” Zacky said, his voice tight as he remembered the past. “Mom wouldn’t sell and she started to get death threats. We figured that it had something to do with the shopping centre but we didn’t know who, and then she was deliberately rammed at the intersection.”
“How would that come back to my father?” Savannah asked, a little unsure if Zacky was speculating about her father’s involvement. Zacky sighed and bit his snakebites again.
“The day of your accident, when we arrived at the hospital your father told me that you wanted to dump me. I didn’t want to believe him, but he’s a lawyer. He’s a damn good liar. I had a feeling he was just trying to get me out of your life, and when I told him that I’d fight for you and speak to you myself when you woke up…” his voice trailed off until Savannah glared at him. “After I told him that I wasn’t going anywhere, he just got this manic look in his eyes and told me that if I didn’t get out of your life, my mother would pay for her stubbornness.”
“And that’s when you realized that he was the one behind the accident?” she asked, her eyes haunted. Zacky nodded with a sigh.
“Yeah. I actually went back to the hospital on my own the next day. I didn’t think anyone was around. I was sitting with you just holding your hand with your mother, when your father came in and dragged me outside. He told me that he’d warned me.” Zacky sighed again before he continued speaking. “That night someone threw a pipe bomb through the window of Mom’s store, though it only partially went off. She was in the back office doing the books.” He heard the gasps of everyone around him, including Savannah.

Savannah was at a loss for words as she let Zacky’s words sink in.
“So if you’d stayed with me, my father would have tried to kill her again?” Zacky nodded.
“I don’t know if he would have, but the implied threat was there and I couldn’t take the chance. She’s my Mom, you know. I couldn’t let her be killed.”
“Shit man,” Jimmy sighed as he slipped out of his bunk. “Why the hell didn’t you tell us?”
“What good would it have done?” Zacky asked, his green eyes bleak with regret. “None of us could have gone up against him.”
“We could have reported him to the police,” Matt sighed.
“I pretty much already have,” Savannah replied. All eyes hurriedly turned to her.
“I asked Ryan to look into things as I had some suspicions about the little information that Zacky had let slip. Ryan called me back to say that he’d handed his file over to the detectives and they were investigating all of the stuff from the shopping centre.”
“Oh honey, are you alright?” Trisha asked her as she moved over and pried Savannah out from underneath Zacky and pulled her into a bone-crushing embrace. Zacky dragged a pillow off Johnny’s bunk and covered his groin, a red tinge to his cheeks.
“Hey, get your junk off my fucking pillow!” Johnny yelled. Savannah glanced around and noticed Zacky sitting there with Johnny’s pillow clasped in his hands. Her cheeks flamed with embarrassment ass she recalled Zacky lying on top of her, and she gulped when she realized the effect that she had had on him.

Still feeling a little unsure of herself, Savannah let Jayde and Trisha lead her back to her own bus. Erica, Tommy and Kyle were all sitting in the living room actively fidgeting as they waited for Savannah to speak.
“This isn’t easy to say,” Savannah began, “but my father tried to kill Zacky’s mother over a shopping centre deal, and basically because he didn’t want Zacky to be in my life.”
“Holy fucking shit,” Tommy replied. “So your father was behind everything?”
“It looks that way,” Savannah sighed. “My father destroyed my life for a shopping centre.”